embodiment is environmentally situated, intersubjectively experienced, historically instituted, culturally orchestrated and socially embeddedWhat is this music for?embodiment is environmentally situated, intersubjectively experienced, historically instituted and culturally orchestratedTim Ingold has argued, “skills are literally embodied, in the sense that their development entails specific modifications in neurology, musculature, and even in basic features of anatomy” (2000: 375).As Greg Downey puts it, “skill is not simply the ‘embodiment’ of ‘knowledge’, but rather physical, neurological, perceptual, and behavioural change of the individual subject so that he or she can accomplish tasks that, prior to enskilment, were impossible” (2010: 35).Embodiment is an ontogenetic processContact Improvisation

embodiment is environmentally situated, intersubjectively experienced, historically instituted, culturally orchestrated and socially embeddedwhen culture becomes anatomyEmbodimentTattooing on the face of Te Pehi Kupe, drawn by himself. "Every line, both on his face and on other parts of his body, was firmly registered on his memory." (Horatio Gordon Robley 1840-1930)Image from: http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-RobMoko-t1-body-d1-d2.html#n44In his phenomenological study of capoeira, Greg Downey (2002) notes that music does not sound the same to everyone. He demonstrates that social and cultural influences play an important role in the sensual apprehension of music. Downey vividly describes how “culture shapes the way one hears” (p. 490). Cultural experience in capoeira means that practitioners perceive music “with a trained and responsive body, through habits copied from others and socially reinforced, and by means of their own musical skills, arduously acquired and actively engaged in listening” (Ibid.). Capoeira music is seldom heard outside of training or play. In response to hearing the rhythms of the berimbau, “practitioners feel the swaying movements diligently sedimented in corporeal memory through arduous training either as an outward movement or an inward quickening, a readiness to move” (p. 500). Live music is the preferred option and “recordings of capoeira music are generally listened to actively as pedagogical materials rather than received passively as external sound objects” (Downey 2002: 498). Unlike Sundanese artists and Javanese dancers, capoeira practitioners are both musicians and movement artists. The rhythms played by capoeira performers on the lead instrument, the berimbau, initiate performance, regulate the interaction of performers, and cue specific events. In a discussion of embodiment and music, choreomusicologist Stephanie Jordan asserts that the business of dancing to music has implications for a dancer‘s understanding of the music (2011: 58). Conversely, musical accompaniment to dance may have implications for the perception of movement.CAPOEIRAExpressions of DifferenceThe “body as canvas” is a poignant metaphor deployed by anthropologists to emphasise how human experience is inscribed onto the body. More than just a canvas, the body is also a site of human expression and agency. Markers of cultural distinction can be written on the body and also expressed through the body.Homeless

Imagine being homeless. What do you see?Image from: http://www.arte.tv/sites/fr/leblogueur/2013/09/29/la-ville-anti-sdf-un-mobilier-pas-tres-urbain/Stairs

Imagine you are in a wheelchair. What do you see?

Driving across culturesWere you brought up in an environment where you had to think about the noise you make during micturition?Eating across culturesMicturition across culturesProcessed foods allow us to think of the mouth as merely an orificeUnprocessed foods require us to use the mouth as a toolUsing blinkers in front vs. using horn from behind.Headchecks in Australia vs. No headchecks in IndonesiaPitted DatesFish in VietnamImage from: http://elitedaily.com/news/world/controversial-anti-homeless-spikes-prevent-homeless-sleeping-doorways/624292/ aUKFranceU.S.A.Canadahttp://www.takepart.com/article/2014/06/27/these-awesome-bus-benches-double-homeless-housing-purpose?cmpid=tp-ptnr-upworthyhttp://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/metro-s-bench-dividers-at-bus-shelters-seen-by-some/article_fa966d07-8aac-5678-a08a-ab3c4f12a451.htmlExperience of disease and warWar and Diseasehttp://www.japantrendshop.com/pee-without-noise-stool-p-558.htmlShiite Muharram Ceremonies

http://culturematters.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/a-day-of-mourning-for-shiites-ashura-during-muharram/Rituals of Pain